Part of fixing our country is building a fence. But yeah getting rid of the incentives for people to come here illegally carries the same amount of weight in my opinion. But that won't happen until someone else is in charge in Washington.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Tim Cook Expresses Thoughts on Equality in Auburn University Award Speech
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Part of fixing our country is building a fence. But yeah getting rid of the incentives for people to come here illegally carries the same amount of weight in my opinion. But that won't happen until someone else is in charge in Washington.
So water is not available yet the infrastructure to support use of a mobile phone is? Haha thanks for the laugh this morning.
Just curious, how are these people that have no water (and probably don't know where their next meal is going to come from) able to afford a mobile phone? And where do they to charge the phone when the battery dies. If they don't have water or food they most likely don't have electricity either.
I don't agree with Bill Gates on everything but he's right on this one.
It's entirely true that technology is not at the top of the list of human needs when it comes down to it. If you're starving, you don't much care if you have a mobile phone.
But it saddens me somewhat to read a number of responses that make the seriously flawed assumption that sub-Saharan Africa is this big mass of savannah with a bunch of children that have no water and food in it.
Yes, there have been, and continue to periodically be, humanitarian crises in Africa that result in people starving or dying form lack of water. But for the vast majority of the tens of millions of people who live in relative poverty in Africa now, the issue is considerably more complex than the stereotypical "starving kid on the TV commercial."
The reality is that, funny enough, a lot of people in Africa do have cell phones. They don't have electricity at their home, or running water, but they have a cheap mobile phone, because that's how you get in touch with somebody else. How do you charge it? You pay the guy in town who has a mobile charging business a few shillings to plug it in and charge it.
Or, more recently--and this is where the organization I work for has been involved--you buy a solar-charged LED lamp of some sort to replace the candle or kerosene lamp you previously used to light your house or shop, and it happens to have a little mobile charging port on it.
In many towns it has been, for quite some time, popular to buy a solar panel, a car battery, and a small TV so you can watch soccer on TV. Necessary? Of course not. But just because they're poor doesn't mean they don't want to watch sports.
See, the reality is that most people in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, etc, don't just sit around on the street waiting to starve. They have jobs, and children, and families. They make only the equivalent of a couple dollars a day in most cases, and many of them have been spending a substantial fraction of that on kerosene to burn in lamps so they can see to work at night, or so their kids can do their homework in hopes of getting a better education.
Giving those people the opportunity to buy--not giving them, but selling them--a comparatively high-tech solar panel hooked to a rechargeable battery and white LED lamp leapfrogs a couple of generations of technology, and bypasses the electric grid entirely. It is not in any way necessary, but it is currently enabling millions of people to improve their quality of life.
That's just an example. A MacBook Pro is a long way from a $20 LED lamp, but it's a simple example of how comparatively advanced technology can and does make a real quality of life difference for the very poor. More importantly, though, it's worth keeping in mind that the kid starving in the street on the commercial on late night TV is not really representative of the majority of the population of Africa--they are still very poor, but they're not in crisis.
(And by the way, I'm not just making this up based on conjecture or fantasy; the organization I work for sends people to these countries regularly for weeks at a time to spend time in rural villages doing surveys, in addition to large-scale national studies.)
mm... charity? product red?
that still counts. no? lemme see... who is the second largest company.. and... what do they do? of course, there are many counter arguments to this. what i tried to say is, apple still do help, in a small way.
The reason that child is dying from lack of clean water is because of a lack of technology.
very valid point! of course they don't use iPhone there but the people who go there to help and make real difference can. and i don't see any problem with that. thumbs up for the nice post!
Don't look now Tim, but no one is buying this. Give your head a shake, you sound like a fool. I can see your new clothes from here.
You're right....advances in technology have not helped the undeveloped world at all. Nope.....not a bit. All those folks working on new tech to develop methods for producing electricity and cleaning water supplies are probably doing their work on Tandy word processors, right? Food and medical supplies are brought in on donkey and by carrier pigeon, right?
The guy at Foxconn building the Apple do-dad is not directly helping the person in Africa who is dying of malaria. But the guy at Foxconn building the Apple do-dad is directly helping the guy in the lab at the place who is working on the medicine to help treat the guy with malaria.
The world is not as disconnected a you seem to want to believe.
Medical research facilities use macs?
Bill gates > Apple/Steve/Tim in charity and third world development sector.
Thank you for your brilliant insight.. As everyone knows, the wonders of electricity and mobile coverage only exist in Switzerland.. And it's just a silly idea for the developing world.
I mean "mobile reception in savanna" - who would ever consider something so crazy!
Thank you, Makosuke, for your thoughtful response and also your actions to try and help people. The Bill Gates Foundation I believe developed a refrigeration unit that can keep live vaccines cold for up to four months using only one small amount of ice.
Certainly technology can help people in Africa and other places, just as laws promoting equality can help people.
Should Tim be talking about this? Why not? He's the head of the world's most successful company. Maybe he'll start The Tim Cook Foundation.
Maybe this signals a stronger commitment on Apple's part to eliminate human rights abuses against the workers who assemble its products.
In my opinion Apple is responsible for safeguarding those workers. Apple's moral responsibility starts there.
Certainly technology can help people in Africa and other places, just as laws promoting equality can help people.
Should Tim be talking about this? Why not? He's the head of the world's most successful company. Maybe he'll start The Tim Cook Foundation.
Maybe this signals a stronger commitment on Apple's part to eliminate human rights abuses against the workers who assemble its products.
In my opinion Apple is responsible for safeguarding those workers. Apple's moral responsibility starts there.
I think Apple could do a much better job of "saving the world" by throwing all their efforts into the fair labor and human trafficking movements. This is something that their industry is directly involved in. I don't mean just getting their channels clean of this but really working to move the whole industry. This is something that they could have a massive impact on. The "bang-for-buck" of results from efforts would be huge with a company like Apple really throwing themselves into that cause. But no... Here we are making polite comments in acceptance speeches about 1st-world-problems while the world is riddled with factories working both children and adults to death.
Thank you for your brilliant insight.. As everyone knows, the wonders of electricity and mobile coverage only exist in Switzerland.. And it's just a silly idea for the developing world.
I mean "mobile reception in savanna" - who would ever consider something so crazy!
Why the snide remarks? Many near-deserted areas are about the size of Switzerland - if not larger - and to cover that space you need more than a couple of cell towers.
Also, I've lived in the US and there are a lot of areas with absolutely no
I am a consultant myself and while I haven't had the chance to work with Apple, I worked with 20 great customers, most of which are Fortune 500 companies. I don't know enough about your story, but just wanted to point out a couple of things:
1. You don't get fired as a contractor, your contract is terminated. Major difference.
2. No state has a law to state reason for termination of contracts.
3. HR is there to protect the company, not the employees, and certainly not contractors
Contracting is one of two things, either an extremely pleasant experience (yea no benefits but you are making significantly more money than you would if you were employee), or an extremely unpleasant one (they pay less and not treat you well). Either way, it's temporary, and it has to end. In fact, I had clients that would db forced to terminate contracts after x years for tax reasons (I.e. Even if you are a contractor, if you spend a long time at the client, irs will consider you an employee).
It was hard for me to say goodbye at a few clients (mind you, most of the time it was me terminating the contract), but that's the reality of the job man. You move on on your next adventure
. Good luck!
What a great speech!
I've not seen a video of Tim Cook before and I am positively impressed by his heartfelt words. How or why people would disagree with his message is beyond me.
Certainly their are people who have experienced discrimination at Apple. A business consists of people and many people will stubbornly continue to harbor prejudices, bigotry and hatreds and act on them despite the intentions of leadership whether in a business, government, church or family.
Tim Cook seems to genuinely believe in the principles and practice of equal opportunity. I wish that I could work for him or someone like him. Believe me, there are plenty of bad bosses and co-workers out there who make life miserable for their employees. Here is someone who evangelizes for the respect, dignity and proper treatment of people regardless of who they are.
I've not seen a video of Tim Cook before and I am positively impressed by his heartfelt words. How or why people would disagree with his message is beyond me.
Certainly their are people who have experienced discrimination at Apple. A business consists of people and many people will stubbornly continue to harbor prejudices, bigotry and hatreds and act on them despite the intentions of leadership whether in a business, government, church or family.
Tim Cook seems to genuinely believe in the principles and practice of equal opportunity. I wish that I could work for him or someone like him. Believe me, there are plenty of bad bosses and co-workers out there who make life miserable for their employees. Here is someone who evangelizes for the respect, dignity and proper treatment of people regardless of who they are.
Last edited:
You seem to be overlooking gnasher's point. Technology does improve life as I think of that basic filter designed to purify water. And although beside the point, I doubt that most Africans live out in the plains, but instead near urban centers that could support cell phone networks. Now if they can afford their phones is a different topic.
Last edited:
Companies SHOULD take a stance on social issues. Gives you a better idea who you're dealing with and where to not spend your money.
I'm curious what the first five rungs are. I imagine water, food, and vaccines are amongst the first five... maybe electricity for lights? IDK - I don't participate much in humanitarian efforts so I don't know what they need, and I'm genuinely curious what the first five things they need are.
